Books with title Summer in Orcus

When the witch Baba Yaga walks her house into the backyard, eleven-year-old Summer enters into a bargain for her heart’s desire. Her search will take her to the strange, surreal world of Orcus, where birds talk, women change their shape, and frogs sometimes grow on trees. But underneath the whimsy of Orcus lies a persistent darkness, and Summer finds herself hunted by the monstrous Houndbreaker, who serves the distant, mysterious Queen-in-Chains…From the Hugo and Nebula award winning author of "Digger" and "Jackalope Wives" comes a story of adventure, betrayal, and heart's desire. T. Kingfisher, who writes for children as Ursula Vernon, weaves together a story of darkness, whimsy, hope and growing things, for all the adults still looking for a door to someplace else.“It’s Wes Craven meets L. Frank Baum, or Narnia for those of us who thought Narnia smiled without showing enough of its teeth.” ~KB Spangler, [i]Digital Divide[/i]

Summer is a perfectly ordinary 11 year old girl with a perfectly ordinary, needy, over-protective single mother. She always does what she is told and has become very good at listening and consoling her mother s fears, but finds the experience increasingly exhausting. Summer loves her mother and would never dream of running away, but wonders deep down if it wouldn't be nice to escape for just a little while and do something adventurous... maybe? Along comes the crone Baba Yaga in her magical walking house, who spies Summer through the alley gate and offers to provide her heart s desire. Summer has no idea what this might be, but with the lighting of a frog-shaped beeswax candle she finds herself transported to the strange world of Orcus with nothing but a weasel in her pocket. Like any girl of her age, she's read lots of fantasy books about people thrust into strange lands; but they usually seemed to have had some idea what they were supposed to do there. Join Summer as she attempts to follow glimpses of turquoise across Orcus with the help of a weasel, a wolf with a house problem, and an aristocratic hoopoe with a penchant for trouble. Along the way she just might figure out what she is looking for, save a wondrous thing, and realize that some of the talents which she takes for granted are mighty useful indeed.

Summer is a perfectly ordinary 11 year old girl with a perfectly ordinary, needy, over-protective single mother. She always does what she is told and has become very good at listening and consoling her mother s fears, but finds the experience increasingly exhausting. Summer loves her mother and would never dream of running away, but wonders deep down if it wouldn't be nice to escape for just a little while and do something adventurous... maybe? Along comes the crone Baba Yaga in her magical walking house, who spies Summer through the alley gate and offers to provide her heart s desire. Summer has no idea what this might be, but with the lighting of a frog-shaped beeswax candle she finds herself transported to the strange world of Orcus with nothing but a weasel in her pocket. Like any girl of her age, she's read lots of fantasy books about people thrust into strange lands; but they usually seemed to have had some idea what they were supposed to do there. Join Summer as she attempts to follow glimpses of turquoise across Orcus with the help of a weasel, a wolf with a house problem, and an aristocratic hoopoe with a penchant for trouble. Along the way she just might figure out what she is looking for, save a wondrous thing, and realize that some of the talents which she takes for granted are mighty useful indeed.

Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. Oxus in Summer , hardcover, Good, Katharine Hull and Pamela Whitlock went to St Mary's Convent in Ascot, where they wrote their first book, at the ages of 14 and 15 respectively. Although at the same school, they were in different boarding houses, and did not meet properly until they were caught out in a rainstorm. Their first book - The Far Distant Oxus - was written in a strange turn and turn about fashion. Each wrote a chapter in turn until they finished, when they revised each other's chapters. Despite this unusual genesis, the book does not read at all as if it was cobbled together: Arthur Ransome, to whom the girls send the book when they had finished it, took it to his own publishers, Jonathan Cape, saying: "I've got this year's best children's book under my arm." Oxus in Summer is the third book in the series. 1st edition 1939. 312pp. Profuse b&w illustrations + colour map endpapers by Pamela Whitlock. Very light foxing to limited to endpapers + fore-edges only. Free from inscription. Binding shaken. Bound within red cloth covered boards with gilt lettering to spine; lightly rubbed to extremities. Displayed within original unclipped (7s. 6d.) dust jacket, wonderfully illustrated with limited colour palette, worn to extremities with small amount of loss to edges + upper. Top fore-edge dyed red to match the cloth covered boards.